What You’ve Been Missing

 

So periodically I write a post to say I’ve moved my blog to my website: therapyideas.net 

People keep subscribing to this the old site & I feel responsible to let you all know I’m not publishing new stuff here….

So you’re missing out on my most recent blog post: Passivity, Anxiety’s Evil Twin where I expose the problem of passivity. If you read it on the website you will learn why it’s important to face your fears instead of indulge them.

You’re missing out on the best new book I’ve read in 2016, Fates & Furies by Lauren Groff. It’s about a marriage. The first half is the husband’s point of view & the second is the wife who has kept secrets of her childhood from everybody and yet those secrets play out in her marriage. It’s a lovely book.

I also have 22 episodes of my podcast that I would love for you to hear. The picture above is my new podcast cover art. Every episode is 10 minutes or so, not requiring a huge amount of time and packed with free info.

After almost 40 years of working to help couples, I offer a podcast of substance on what relationships require to last for the long haul. I use books & movies to illustrate the points I’m trying to make. I offer challenges of things you can actually do in your own relationship at the end of every podcast.

A podcast is a blog spoken out loud, it’s great to be read to. It’s easy to do, just download any free podcast app on your smart phone, I used Podcast Addict. Then pick podcasts you want to listen to & go exercise or play them while you drive.

Coming up will be a post written by a woman who’s husband is in recovery from sex addiction & what her experience has been in Sex-Anon.

The only way to catch up is to go to my website & subscribe. I appreciate your interest in my efforts and I hope to continue filling you in on how to be successful in relationships for some time to come.  Rhoda

 

Relationship Realities Podcasts

I have not written here in some time because I moved my blog to my website. Please go there to sign up for all new posts. There are also 27 episodes of my podcast What Healthy Couples Know That You Don’t on the podcast page. Already I have almost 33,000 downloads which means I am reaching a larger audience which has always been my goal. (All of the episodes are only 10 to 12 minutes long.)

I’ve also created two animated videos on my new video page. One is on anxiety & the other is on relationships. There is a lot available for you & there are many learning opportunities at therapyideas.net

My website is all about offering substance for free to make my contribution to the world being improved. One of my favorite quotes is by Sarah One Jewett “It seems to me like stealing for men & women to live in the world & do nothing to make it better.”

You can also find me on Instagram & twitter @rhodaoncouples. The above picture is my most recent Instagram post. It’s all too easy for one person’s negativity to spill over onto everyone else without any self awareness. It’s so easy to lie to ourselves & pretend it’s not that bad when we splash onto someone else. We make things ok that really aren’t.

The blog post I just published 12/15/16 is about the lies we tell ourselves. Tanya French’s new novel has a strong female detective who by the end of the book is able to recognize her own dark side of telling herself a story that wasn’t true. It’s a brilliant book on an important subject when false news stories have become ordinary.

In case you are wondering how to listen to a podcast or even what it is: a podcast is listening to a blog post. All you do is go to my website & listen or download podcast addict or another podcast listening app on your phone, type in the title, put your earphones in & listen. It will open up a whole new world of delights! My most recent podcast episode is on Anger Management to Grow Relationships.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Make Sure You Stay a Couple (even with kids)

Relationships can be suffocated if parents become so child-focused that they forget about being a couple. The “US” of being a couple should not be erased. The US is the third entity of every couple that requires care & nurturing

When couples come to see me I will use a prop to demonstrate there is an US, not just 2 individuals. It’s important to recognize the US needs to grow & breathe. It’s more than the sum of it’s parts.

Get a babysitter & go out twice a month to remember who you are as a couple. Don’t give up your sex life because you are exhausted. Make time to talk & share without every conversation about your children.

Stay curious & interested in each other.

I ask my couples when was the last time you had fun & they look at each other & dredge up some memory 2,3 or 4 months ago. This is unacceptable. While fun as a family matters so does fun as a couple.

I have moved this blog to my website: therapy ideas.net please subscribe there. The current new blog post is Marriage, Secrets & Unfinished Business from Childhood.

You can follow me on instagram & twitter: @rhodaoncouples  (The picture above was my very first instagram picture)

I also have 16 podcast episodes available on my website from my show: What Healthy Couples Know that You Don’t. It’s available on both iTunes & Stitcher. Podcasts are audio blogs that can be played in the car or while exercising by downloading a podcast app on your phone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NEW TRAUMA & PTSD PAGE ON WEBSITE

I spent years working with rape & incest victims for Pittsburgh Action Against Rape, many decades ago. Trauma is a big deal. If you are struggling with trauma or love someone who is, take the time to learn more about it.

Trauma can interrupt the bravest of individuals, as depicted in Clint Eastwood’s movie American Sniper. You watch Bradley Cooper return home with PTSD & struggle with feeling ok in the normal world after the trauma of war.

Trauma makes you question the very core of who you are, like a jellyfish stranded on the sand.

Trauma can happen in experiences that layer over time like Brian Wilson in the movie Love and Mercy. His father hit him so often he was deaf in his left ear. Then he repeated the experience of never pleasing his father with the disturbed psychologist who treated him. There is a danger in repeating patterns that are harmful when someone suffers with trauma.

There are terrific books out there now that capture trauma in both the fiction & nonfiction worlds. There is more awareness of trauma in 2015 than in 1980 when victims of incest suffered in silence afraid of not being believed. The Books are listed on the trauma page of my website.

Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing or EMDR for short is discussed as a viable treatment for trauma therapy. There is a you tube video of explanation.

If you have received this email you may have not realized the blog has been moved to my website. I will rarely post here except with updates. So please sign up for my blog:

therapyideas.net

You’ve missed a great post on Control, What is it We Love?. Go have a look. Thanks for subscribing to this blog & I hope you will try my new podcast out! You can find my podcast on my website also or go to iTunes & search for What Healthy Couples Know that You Don’t.

RELATIONSHIP PODCAST LAUNCHED!!!!

Relationships are one of the best things in life to get right. A podcast is an audio blog, if you’ve never tried a podcast before maybe now is the time. Each of my podcasts is under 10 minutes & will come out every 2 weeks.

I new podcast is a baby bird trying to fly; reviews & subscriptions are like worms to help it grow. I can’t even get a star rating until a certain number of people have reviewed it. I’d love to make it to New & Noteworthy.

I would love to get your help for the new podcast I’ve launched
on itunes & sticher (for androids). It’s called “What Healthy Couples Know
That You Don’t”

Here are the links:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/what-healthy-couples-know/id988410790

http://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=64902&refid=stpr

Directions for 1 1/2 minutes on how to leave a review on iTunes by my podcast coach:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAv3gq1tjJc   

If you have received this email you may have not realized the blog has been moved to my website. I will rarely post here except with updates. So please sign up for my blog:

therapyideas.net

You’ve missed a great post on how defensiveness contaminates communication. Go have a look. Thanks for subscribing to this blog & I hope you will try the new podcast out!

Defensiveness, a Very Bad Habit that Destroys Communication

Defensiveness is a powerful way to reassure yourself. Everybody does it almost every day if they have relationships. Defensiveness is a knee jerk reaction that says “Oh,no that’s not me, you don’t get what a good person I really am! I am so misunderstood.”

The irony is that the misunderstanding is usually yours, not theirs. It’s very hard to jump into the cold water of the deep end & recognize the bits that are true about your own dark side. The only way to grow & change is to do the hard work of swimming around in these very dark waters.

Defensiveness is worst than chewing your nails or pulling your hair or grinding your teeth because this bad habit stunts your soul’s ability to grow.

The opposite of defensiveness is being vulnerable, which is avoided by most people in our culture. Vulnerable is that sick feeling in the pit of your stomach that says “oh,shit did I really do that?” Facing up to your mistakes & mistreatment of others is the only path there is to building character within yourself.

Defensiveness is the constant fragile rebuilding of the false reality that you have done no wrong nor ever would!

Defensiveness is creating Disneyland for the soul which is a bad idea. Bad because it obscures truthfulness (like all those smiles the land of Mickey coaxed from their employees). The soul is capable of facing hard truths & then willing yourself to be different because you value growing up.

I use Fritz Perls definition: Growing up is honestly facing painful situations

Our defense mechanisms are triggered by wanting to avoid the harshness of reality. Using denial to avoid painful things is an epidemic in the world (as Russia & Turkey jail journalists who don’t follow the party lines of false reality) not just the USA.

Reality asks a lot from us. I remember in 90 & 91 helping my best friend Patrick who died of AIDS in 92 recognize that AIDS was a full-time job. Defensiveness is about creating false realities and adds problems to all partnerships & marriage.

People come in to my office & say they have a communication problem 99 times out of 100. I propose that the communication problem is really defensiveness with a lack of ability to face the truth about how you contribute to the problems in a relationship.

We far prefer the old, tired circles of blame that go nowhere!

Defensiveness is a way to stay comfortable & blame the other person instead of being uncomfortable & looking at ourselves. Try jumping into the deep end of the pool, taking responsibility for your contributions to the problems & watch the communication improve massively!

I’m Moving Blog to my Website @ Therapyideas.net

Today, February 12th marks my sixth year of blogging! I’ve been advised I was foolish not to have my blog on my website (which is also on WordPress), and finally I’m going to correct the situation. I really hope to not lose many subscribers because YOU are why I continue to write. Today, February 12, 2015 marks 6 years of my blogging. I hope to continue to make this one of the best Blog sites on the web. My current new creative spark is to begin podcasting. Podcasts are an audio blog. It’s another format to reach a wider audience. I invite each of you to take time to comment below; I would love to know if there are specific topics or questions about relationships you would like me to address either in a blog post or podcast….. I’m in my early 60’s (my grandson is in the picture above with me) & I want to keep my creative fires burning. My passion for my work has not diminished in over 35 years of working. There is so much to learn about relationships and how to keep them growing. I’ve used the web & will use the microphone in 2015 to reach a wider audience. I hired a podcast mentor Doug Foresta because I want to reach more people with my ideas before I die. This is my unique legacy…… Visit the website & it is easy to see it is about substance, not marketing. I’m proud of that. I believe that fortune favors the bold & that it’s important to stir up my status quo with new risks & challenges. I can’t ask my clients to have courage to try new things if I’m not willing to do so myself. I believe that life requires us to be uncomfortable & do new things to maintain liveliness & vitality. There are a lot of boring people because they base their choices on fear which strangles & suffocates, which keeps the world too small. I’m mostly scared of losing my faithful readers so I invite you to subscribe here to the blog’s new home:   http://therapyideas.net/blog.htm. (I will also send you a link to podcasts if you sign up) Also try this link Sign up Here Thanks again for 6 years of reading, I appreciate your loyalty because I’m well aware there are sooooo many important priorities tugging at your available time.

Our Relationship to the Have Nots & the Novel Preparation for the Next Life

I read this because of the book review in the NYT on 11/13/14. The reviewer’s last sentence: The final chapters of this indelible book pulled my heart up under my ears. caught my attention.

I will never look at a homeless or poor person again without noticing how worn their shoes are because of reading this book. This novel changes your perspective, that rare gift of terrific writing by Atticus Lish. He writes with a real respect for the struggles of a PTSD suffering vet & an undocumented immigrant & their love story.

I read it during the week that Congress was trying to pass a bill that would dump the McCain-Feingold 2002 campaign finance law. Nancy Pelosi said that the measure (supported by Obama) will “drown out the voices of the American people & massively expand the role of big money in our elections.”(USA Today 12/11/14). Ordinary people losing power & respect is becoming an ordinary story not just in Russia, but here in the USA.

I used to live in an insulated “have” neighborhood because of the public school district, where I was the only one I knew to buy a used car. I am relieved to live in diversity, in a working class area where many people drive Chevy cavaliers. Being insulated can be mind-numbing & lacks empathy.

The two lovers in the story push themselves to be physical and the details the author captures make you feel as if you are pounding the pavement right along by their side. Their relationship builds & layers in a very authentic way that combines both dread & happiness for them as they move towards the future.

It’s a book where the characters stay with you after you have finished the last page, which is my favorite kind of art within a novel.

It’s hard to believe this is a first novel for the author, because it is so well crafted. The words soar off the page. The details of owning so little, eating terrible food and barely getting by carry a truthfulness that makes them stick to your heart.

Already, I look forward to the next novel by Atticus Lish.

Integrity is All About Self-Confrontation

Integrity is the difference between being nice and being good. We live in a world that too easily values nice because nice is easy to do. Good is a whole lot more hard work. The Big Bad Wolf was really nice to Little Red Riding Hood before he ate her grandmother.

Someone facing hard truths about their own dark side is the infrastructure of integrity.

We humans are more like reptiles in our brain functions than mammals. We all have selfish, greedy & entitled feelings. Feelings are completely unreliable. It’s what you do with your feelings that matters.

When I have a client who paints a picture of themselves that leaves me confused as to what their dark side might be, I ask them to ask someone they trust to provide more honest feedback. Good therapy will collide with the comforting picture of yourself that you have in your head.

You can’t grow without being uncomfortable.

We so easily imagine ourselves to be better than we are. This is creating a false reality, like Disneyland for the soul. We all create defensive energy so rapidly in order to keep the falseness operating. Most problems in relationships are avoided & deflected by almost everybody because it is easier short-term (like the monkeys pictured above).

Instead we have to be willing to wrestle withe worst parts of ourselves. Only then can the best of who we are truly stand up to build into real character. You have to find the courage to collide with the comfortable way you see yourself.

Think of all the marriages you think you know, including your own. When someone blows up the other person usually gives up. This maintains the status quo & nothing changes or is solved which is so much easier than dealing with the struggle of hard truths. Most people avoid the real issues.

I send spouses home to ask “Why have we stopped being sexual?” “Is it ok if we have a celibate partnership?” These are questions that need to be faced. Low desire partners usually do not perceive themselves as part of a problem because they don’t miss sex.

Years of layered silences or loud yelling & screaming stops communication.

Think of your family of origin, how many times did you witness a problem being dealt with successfully?

Therapy is far more successful when you are willing to do the work on something you don’t want to deal with.

Marriage/Partnership means doing things you don’t want to do.

Improving yourself, your relationships or your job means being honest about the problems. If you, your partner/friends or your supervisor avoid honest feedback then you are setting yourself up for mediocrity. It takes courage & honest disagreement to grow, change & improve character.